Blackie came to us completely matted and covered with fecal matter (matted into his fur), he is emaciated - an adult Cocker Spaniel should weigh around 22-25lbs. and he's a mere 13lbs. His mouth is full of rotting teeth (surgery to come in about 2 weeks). He had an embedded collar that was removed at some point and left scarring where it buried itself in his neck.He is weak and has lost muscle mass. In short, he's a mess - but we've since clipped and bathed, clipped and bathed until he's at the very least, mat free and clean. Ironically, another area rescue REFUSED to take him in, saying "He's too old, drop him off to the pound"!!But we're always on the side of seniors - we figure they've met us at least halfway, surviving long enough to find our rescue, so we'll do our part and help them! Isn't that what rescues do??

Before

He's skin and bones - our vet was shocked, as I was, at his body condition - and you know, we've seen horrible crap before, so that's saying a lot!

He's sooo very sweet...

If you note his donated Collarmania, you'll see it is actually loose and these sizes are snug on Dachshunds

Wow. For anyone following this, I wanted to update Blackie's conditon, his blood results were back today.His white blood cell count is through the roof. Our vet said she's never even seen one this high!The lab said he's either septic or has tissue death/decay somewhere (we know it's his mouth). He's anemic. And - he's got almost no thyroid going on! Our vet said illness can make their thyroid look low but this is beyond low.Poor Blackie!He is doing tons better but she wants him on another antibiotic other than amox (all he's taking right now) because of his WBC count.He goes the 19th for oral surgery.

Thanks...he's going to need them!I should learn today what antibiotic she wants him on, she was thinking metronidazole but wasn't sure how it would interact with the amox. or if it would do the trick.All I can tell you is he has access to water 24/7, has picked up his appetite some and has put on a little weight or at least isn't all bones anymore...

Our vet keeps saying she's never seen a WBC this high - and the dentists feel there's either something else going on or it's leukemia, I don't know what to think She mentioned a bone marrow thing, do they DO that to dogs?Or a blood culture...

His WBC was 95,000 - normal is up to 17,000.She says they are "all over", all the WBCs are elevated, meaning we can't distinguish between a bacterial or a viral infection. She's going to see him at 3:15 this afternoon to check his prostate.Other than a severe infection, he's got leukemia. She mentioned IMHA, too

Oh, and he's very anemic so it seemed possible his bone marrow was in overdrive to kick out RBCs and started kicking out extra WBCs too. I don't know if that makes sense.